Alyssa Peachey, MHA is a project manager in the People, Place and Health Collective at Brown University. She currently manages clinical research trials for adults who are receiving treatment or recovery support for opioid use disorder. She is passionate about collaborating with other research teams to prevent overdose and incorporate harm reduction practices within the community. She has experience working in emergency medicine research as well as recruiting participants via social media advertising on a national level.

Hello! My name is Cathy Lenox (she/her) and I am a Research Assistant here at PPHC in the Department of Epidemiology at Brown University School of Public Health. My work is primarily on studies focusing on opioid overdose prevention (RAPIDS) or digital peer support for those in treatment or recovery from opioid use disorder (MPS). This work focuses on harm reduction and motivational interviewing. If you want to say hi or talk about my work, you can reach me out: cathy_lenox@brown.edu

My name is Claire Macon (she/her) and I am a Research Assistant at PPHC working primarily on the testRI study. My work at PPHC builds off of previous direct service and organizing work related to houselessness, drug users rights and access, and sex workers rights. I am interested in research that focuses on community centered harm reduction strategies and understanding labor and survival amongst criminalized populations. Feel free to reach me directly at claire_macon@brown.edu!

My name is Jacqueline Goldman (they/them), and I am a Project Director who runs the Community Engaged Research work here at PPHC. In my role, I manage a number of different studies that are all rooted in community research methods. The studies work directly with people who use drugs as well as the organizations that support them. I am passionate about using research to create real-world change. I believe that our policy and practice needs to center harm reduction and the voices of people with lived experience. If you have any questions or just want to say hello, you can reach me at: jacqueline_goldman1@brown.edu!

My name is Erik Wills (he/him), and I am a Human Research Specialist at the PPHC in the Department of Epidemiology at Brown University. I received my Masters in Public Health in 2019 from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In my role at PPHC I assist in the development and tracking of Institutional Review Board (IRB) submissions, in addition to serving as a liaison between study investigators, sponsors, and the IRB office. I am passionate about clinical research and discovering new organization tactics. Outside of work I am a skier and pug owner. Feel free to reach out to me at erik_wills@brown.edu with any questions.

My name is Kelsey Armeni (she/her) and I am a Research Assistant with PPHC. I help with data collection in the field on projects within the Community-engaged Research Pod and Clinical Research Pod. I am passionate about applied research using ethnographic and qualitative methods to address environmental, social, and structural determinants of health. Feel free to reach out at kelsey_armeni@brown.edu.

My name is Laura Chambers (she/her), and I am an epidemiologist who is passionate about working with public health departments and community-based organizations to improve population health and health equity. My work involves both research and applied epidemiology spanning the fields of substance use, mental health, COVID-19, and sexual health. I completed my MPH and PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Washington in Seattle.

My name is Michael Tan (he/him), and I work as a Project Coordinator working on community engaged research. I work mainly on data collection in the field at offsite locations throughout Rhode Island with nonprofit community organizations on project RAPIDS. I also help with other various projects, including doing data collection with qualitative research. I received a B.A. in Public Health at Brown University Spring 2021. If you have any questions or just want to say hello, you can reach me at: michael_tan1@brown.edu

My name is Roxxanne Newman (she/her) and I am a Research Assistant for the Centers for Epidemiology and Environmental Health at Brown University. I am currently assisting with the RAPIDS and TAROE studies. Additionally, I am a Co-PI on an R24 funded pilot study examining the use of recovery community centers by people on medications used for opiate use disorder. I am also currently a Ph.D. student at Capella University pursuing a Doctorate in General Psychology with a focus on addiction and recovery science. Passionate about research-focused recovery, addiction, and harm reduction, as well as an advocate for multiple social justice issues, I am also a person in long term recovery.

My name is Sari Greene and I am a Research Assistant with the Department Epidemiology at the Brown School of Public Health working on studies with the Person, Place, and Health Collective. I am passionate about community informed research, harm reduction, and remediating the long-lasting effects of the war on drugs. Please feel free to reach out to me with questions or to say hello at sari_greene@brown.edu.

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Fiona Bhondoekhan is a second-year doctoral student in the Department of Epidemiology involved with chronic pain and opioid addiction research aimed to improve treatment access and health outcomes of people who use drugs. She works with the Dr. Brandon Marshall and the People, Place & Health Collective (PPHC) at Brown University evaluating behavioral interventions and opioid prescription trends among high-risk opioid-using populations in Rhode Island. Her research interests are also in pharmacoepidemiology and evaluating policy effects for drug improvement programs using claims data and epidemiologic methods such as causal frameworks evaluating marginal structural models, instrumental variables, propensity scores, and target trial emulations. Before coming to Brown University, she worked as biostatistician for the MACS/WIHS Combined Cohort Study (i.e., the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study and Women’s Interagency HIV Study) where her work focused on chronic age-related outcomes disproportionally affecting people living with HIV including cardiovascular disease, inflammation, frailty, and neurocognition. Fiona obtained her master’s degree in Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University in 2018 and her bachelor’s degree in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2013.

Shayla Nolen is a fourth-year doctoral candidate interested in using mathematical modeling and spatial methods to estimate the impact of structural and social factors related to racism on HIV and overdose prevention. Her dissertation will specifically investigate the effect of gentrification on HIV transmission among African American/Black adults in Philadelphia using a spatially dynamic agent-based model. Prior to Brown, she worked at Boston University Medical Center, conducting cost-effectiveness research to study HCV and overdose prevention among people who inject drugs. She holds a BA in Mathematics from Fisk University and an MPH with a concentration in Epidemiology from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.